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Peter Lucantoni. Activities for developing speaking skills. Peter Lucantoni. Started teaching in 1979 in UK, MA TESOL University of Edinburgh, lived and worked in Europe and Middle East, now based in Cyprus Author, Educational Consultant & Teacher Trainer for Cambridge University Press
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Peter Lucantoni Activities for developing speaking skills
Peter Lucantoni • Started teaching in 1979 in UK, MA TESOL University of Edinburgh, lived and worked in Europe and Middle East, now based in Cyprus • Author, Educational Consultant & Teacher Trainer for Cambridge University Press • Cambridge TKT, CELTYL, CELTA & DELTA trainer and Cambridge CELTYL assessor • Examiner for Cambridge ESOL speaking examinations
Overview • What do the experts say? • What does speaking involve? • Pairwork and groupwork • Making it motivating • Activities • Conclusions
What do the experts say? • The ability to speak a second … language well is a very complex task (Jack Richards, 2002) • Learning to speak a foreign language requires more than knowing its grammatical and semantic rules (Kang Shumin, 2002) • Speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill (Martin Bygate, 2000)
What do the experts say? • Getting students to talk is the major and one of the most difficult tasks confronting any teacher (C N Candlin, 1990) • We often make judgements about a person’s social, cultural or educational background on the basis of the quality of their spoken language (Lucantoni, 2002)
What does speaking involve? • Discuss with your colleagues and try to agree on the different things that speaking involves. • recall of appropriate words
Speaking involves … • recall of appropriate words • organisation of words into units • movement of lips & tongue to form sounds • monitoring sounds and correcting if necessary • awareness of cultural conventions
What do learners need to practise and learn? • 1 carry out ‘routine’ exchanges • 2 take part in ‘unpredictable’ exchanges • Think of examples of both types of exchanges
What do learners need to practise and learn?? • 3 know when it is appropriate to speak, when to interrupt, … • 4 monitor what they say, for correction • 5 negotiate and manage exchanges • 6 speak with intelligible pronunciation • 7 select appropriate grammar & vocabulary
Do we need to teach speaking skills? • Grammar & vocabulary learning involves oral practice • Receptive skills lessons often involve speaking • Speaking often bound up in everything else we do in classroom
Do we need to teach speaking skills? • Many learners say that speaking is the most important skill for them • Dedicated speaking lessons are useful • Provides safe rehearsal for the real world
Pairwork & group work • Greatly increases amount of time students can talk in class – best way to maximise class time • Improves quality of talking, more natural – hesitation, mixed structures, unfinished … • Natural framework for interaction • Encourages communal classroom, helps to individualise learning
Pairwork & group work • Students learn by doing things for themselves • Focus on fluency rather than accuracy • Confidence building • Teacher freer to listen to more students • Classes more active/interactive and fun, therefore more motivating
Making it motivating • Make speaking relevant • Make speaking real • Don’t forget pronunciation • Show them how much they can say (not what they can’t say)
Making it motivating • Don’t criticise mistakes • Encourage free expression • Provide feedback • Give them the words they need • Speaking means listening too
Find someone who ... • You – Hassan, can you drive a car? • Hassan – Yes, I can. • You – When did you learn to drive? • Hassan – Two years ago.
Find someone who ... • You – Salma, would you like to come for dinner? • Salma – Yes, I would. • You – What would you like to eat? • Salma – Not meat – I’m vegetarian.
Swim swam swum street • Think of the area where you live – streets, shops, buildings, restaurants, etc • Draw a simple map and name/label the details from the first stage • Look through your notes and books and pick out 10-12 useful words or phrases that you want to revise, eg, swim/swam/swum
Swim swam swum street • Now rename the details on the map, using the vocabulary you want to revise, for example: Swim Swam Swum Street, On the Other Hand Restaurant, Most Comfortable Bank • In pairs or small groups, present new maps to each other, reinforcing vocabulary to be revised
Question-Question • Sometimes we answer a question with another question • Why? Try to think of three reasons
Question-Question Ali >>> <<< Badra Pretty good. Where are you going? I’m nosey. Can I come with you? I said ‘How are you?’ Hi, Badra, how are you? I’m ok. What about you? What did you say? Ahhh, that’s my secret! Why do you want to know? Are you crazy?
Ali Hello, how are you? Badra What did you say? Ali I said ‘How are you?’ Badra I’m ok, what about you? Ali Pretty good. Where are you going? Badra Ahhh, that’s my secret! Why do you want to know? Ali I’m nosey! Can I come with you? Badra Are you crazy?!
Useful questions • What did you say? • Why do you ask? • Can you say that again? • Can we stop this? • Are you deaf? • What do you mean?
The world • Listen to the words • Think about in which country you can write them • Example: ‘coffee’ could go in Italy because the coffee is good there, or in Brazil because coffee beans grow there • Discuss with your partners and give reasons for your choices
The world Where did you put coffee? I put coffee in Brazil So did I / I didn’t Why did you put coffee in Brazil? I chose Brazil because … I agree / disagree
The world coffee football history wild animals oil chocolate mountains fishing coffee peace water music
Presenting a new product • Umbrella • Paper clip • Candle • Fork • Coat hanger • Highlighter • Chopsticks
Presenting a new product • Choose the product you want to present • Think of five new features for it • Draw and label it, showing the new features
Presenting a new product 1. Laser pointer 5. _______________ 2. Multi-coloured 4. _______________ 3. ________________
Presenting a new product • Look at the talk skeleton and make notes about your product • Prepare and deliver your presentation to the class
Presenting a new product • Thank you very much for coming to our presentation! • Our wonderful new product is called ………. • I’m going to tell you about it. Afterwards, you can ask questions.
Presenting a new product • The ………. is fantastic! • Firstly ………. • Secondly ………. • Also ………. • And ………. • Finally ……….
Presenting a new product • We believe that our ………. is ………. • I have time to answer two or three questions now • Thank you all for listening!
Conclusions • Competence in speaking is just as much about how as what • Building learners’ confidence is an essential part of the whole speaking process • Don’t sacrifice creativity for accuracy • Don’t sacrifice accuracy for creativity • Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold …
